Police issue crime prevention advisory for loanshark harassment scams
By Amelia Teng
The Straits Times
Thursday, Apr 11, 2013
SINGAPORE - Police have in the last month received several reports of harassment involving SMS messages that were purportedly sent by loansharks. In such cases, the victims would receive SMS messages from unknown mobile phone numbers threatening to harass their homes unless they pay up their loans.
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Here is a full statement from the Singapore Police Force:
In the past month, Police have received multiple reports of intentional harassment involving SMS messages that were purportedly sent by loansharks.
In these cases, the victims would usually receive SMS messages from unknown mobile phone numbers threatening to harass their homes unlessthey pay up their loans. When the victims called back the phone numbers, they would be told by the culprit(s) that their "particulars" had been used to borrow money from loansharks with no specific details provided.
The culprit(s) would also demand payment from the victims and threaten to harass their families by locking, splashing paint or setting fire at their units if they did not pay up.
Although the victims in most cases had no dealings with loansharks, a few of these victims would transfer money to bank account numbers provided by the culprit(s) out of fear for their safety.
Members of public are advised to be aware of such scams and to adopt the following measures:
a) Do not reveal your personal particulars such as name, NRIC number, residential address and contact details to unknown individuals;
b) Keep your SingPass log-in details confidential and do not disclose it to anyone;
c) Do not give in to unknown and unsolicited demands for loan repayments;
d) Do not contact the sender of the SMS messages; and
e) Lodge a Police report via the Electronic Police Centre (ePC) at http://www.spf.gov.sg/epc/ or at any Neighbourhood Police Centre/Post if you receive any call or SMS of such nature, or dial '999' for urgent Police assistance.
